Pian delle Querci: Rosso di Montalcino 2021
Pian delle Querci Rosso di Montalcino 2021: wild-fermented, six months in Slavonian oak. The entry wine of a small Brunello house, tasted twice.
Six months in wood, five in bottle, and out the door. The Pian delle Querci Rosso di Montalcino 2021 is the quick wine from a house that otherwise lives on patience. Their Brunello spends thirty-six months in cask. This Rosso is what you drink while you wait for it.
A small house, four generations
Pian delle Querci is a four-generation family estate, run today by winemaker Vittorio Pinti. The property covers forty-eight hectares, eight and a half of them vineyard. The vines sit at around 250 metres, on clay and tuff with plenty of stones.
No yeast from a packet goes into the cellar. Fermentation runs on whatever the grapes and the cellar bring with them. For a Rosso, often the commercial wine of a Brunello house, I find that telling: they treat the entry wine no differently from the flagship.
Rosso or Brunello
Rosso di Montalcino and Brunello di Montalcino come from the same commune and the same grape, Sangiovese Grosso. The difference is time. Brunello has to age for years before it can be sold; a Rosso can reach the market much sooner. If you want to learn a Brunello house’s style without waiting years or paying Brunello money, start with the Rosso.
How it’s made
Extraction is moderate, with plenty of pumping over during the early ferment. Then six months in Slavonian oak and five months in bottle. That short élevage keeps the wine fresh.
Tasting Note
Appearance
Vibrant in colour.
Nose
Fragrant and refined. Fresh strawberries and red plums, with a hint of mandarin and lemon.
Palate
Medium-bodied, with soft, silky tannins.
Quality
Drinkable now, but it can handle some patience too.
The other note
At La Grande Bellezza in Amsterdam, in spring 2025, I tasted the same 2021 next to the house’s Brunello 2020 and Riserva 2019. There it came in austere, with cranberry, cherry and subtle tobacco. It tasted more mature than I expected, with more fruit concentration and a hint of orange.
The fresh strawberries of my other note were harder to find there. What both notes share is the citrus: mandarin and lemon in one, orange in the other.
What to watch for
First, this isn’t a one-face wine. Next to the Brunellos it came across austere; in my other note, soft and fresh. Whether that was down to the company, I can’t say for sure. To be safe, taste it without its heavyweight siblings alongside.
Second, a Rosso isn’t a small Brunello. If you want the depth and earthy layers of a mature Brunello, you won’t find them here, and you shouldn’t expect to. That’s what the house’s Brunello 2020 is for.
Drink it now, with pasta and ragù or a wedge of pecorino.
- Producer
- Pian delle Querci, Montalcino
- Wine
- Rosso di Montalcino DOC
- Vintage
- 2021
- Region
- Montalcino, Tuscany, Italy
- Grape
- Sangiovese Grosso
- Soil
- Clay and tuff, around 250 m
- Winemaking
- Spontaneous fermentation, moderate extraction
- Ageing
- 6 months Slavonian oak, 5 months bottle
Sources
- My own tasting notes, including La Grande Bellezza, Amsterdam, spring 2025
- Pian delle Querci (official, history and production): piandellequerci.it
- Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino: consorziobrunellodimontalcino.it
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